Marine Insurance Markets News

The International Union of Marine Insurance – unveiling its annual statistical report on the marine insurance market at today’s conference in Genova, announced global underwriting premiums for 2015 of USD 29.9bn. This is a 10.5% reduction on the 2014 figure. Vice-Chairman of IUMI’s Facts & Figures Committee, Astrid Seltmann explains, “Part of the reduction can be attributed to the strong US dollar as compared with other currencies but this is not the whole picture, particularly for hull and offshore energy where much of the original business is written in USD. Technical insurance results for the 2014 underwriting year deteriorated strongly for cargo, hull and energy sectors compared with last year’s reported data for the same period.

Global premiums for 2014 amount to USD 32.6bn. Although a 3.2% reduction on the 2013 figure, converting local currencies to a single US dollar figure was impacting on the true result. In the cargo sector, a number of local markets experienced positive growth but that growth was largely hidden by the strong US dollar. It is generally assumed that a loss ratio of 70% or less represents a “technical profit” for the sector. While the 2014 underwriting year seems to have produce a technical profit (based on figures as of December 2014) it is likely that the Tianjin explosion – as potentially the largest single cargo loss ever recorded - will impact significantly on 2014 and 2015 results. The outlook for the cargo market is hard to predict in light of the current changing economic environment.

XL Group informs that its leading marine underwriters will join the annual International Union of Marine Insurance (IUMI) conference, the first time to be held in Hong Kong in the organisation’s 140-year history. IUMI is being held in HK from 21-24 September 2014 with the theme 'Building Expertise for a Changing World'. XL Group’s Chief Underwriting Officer, Marine, Asia Pacific, Mike Davies, has been global Vice Chairman of IUMI for 3 years and prior to that was Chairman of the Technical Cargo Committee for 6 years. Mr. Davies, who has worked in Singapore for many years, has been actively involved in shaping this year’s conference, which will focus on the opportunities and risks specific to Asian markets and the region’s fast growing maritime sector. Commenting, Mr.

BMT Marine & Offshore Surveys, which incorporates The Salvage Association and Murray Fenton, is delighted to announce that the business and assets of the company have been acquired by Braemar Shipping Services Plc, a leading international provider of shipbroking, consultancy, technical, logistics and other services to the shipping and energy industries. Nigel Clark, Managing Director of BMT Marine & Offshore Surveys, said: “We are delighted with the outcome of this sale process and we believe this is a tremendous opportunity for the future of our business.

The world's marine insurers collectively lost $3 billion in 1999, Norway's Central Union of Marine Underwriters (CEFOR) said. Cefor's calculation uses the collective experience of marine insurers in Norway - one of the world's major marine insurance markets - and extrapolates the results to the global industry. Cefor's md said that not even in their previous worst case estimates did CEFOR anticipate anything like this. The principal reason for the losses is continuing reduction in insurance premium rates, said Formso. On CEFOR's current estimates, rates in 2000 have dropped to 31 per cent of their 1994 levels. Hvide Marine Inc. Hvide Marine Inc. said last Monday that chairman and CEO Jean Fitzgerald has been hospitalized with a heart condition and was to undergo surgery.